Cyprus – Russia Double Tax Agreement:
Postponement of application of the Protocol amending Article 13 “Capital gains”
On the 29th December 2016, the Ministry of Finance announced that an agreement has been reached between the Russian and Cyprus authorities for the postponement of the application of the Protocol amending Article 13 “Gains from Alienation of Property” of the Double Tax Agreement (DTA) between Cyprus and the Russian Federation.
The Protocol, which was signed on 7 October 2010, provided for the amendment of Article 13 of the DTA so that, as of 1 January 2017, gains derived by a resident of a contracting state from the alienation of shares or similar rights deriving more than 50% of their value from immovable property situated in the other Contracting State may be taxed in that other state.
The announcement goes further to state that a supplementary Protocol is currently being finalised, through which the application of the revised provisions of Article 13 of the DTA will be deferred, until similar provisions are introduced in other bilateral DTA’s between the Russian Federation and other European countries.
What this means in practice is that, until further notice, gains derived by a Cyprus company from sale of shares in a (Russian) company that owns immovable property in Russia shall continue to be taxed only in Cyprus without any taxing right for Russia. It is noted that for Cyprus tax purposes, profit from sale of shares is specifically tax exempt.
